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During his eight months in Brazil, James kept a diary, wrote
letters home, made numerous sketches, and even composed a brief travel
narrative ("A Month on the Solimoens"). Thanks to the efforts of Maria Helena
P.T. Machado, these documents have now been gathered together in one handsome,
slim, and scrupulously edited volume: Brazil
Through the Eyes of William James: Letters, Diaries, and
Drawings 1865-1866. As this is a bilingual edition, moreover, the
entire text—introduction, letters, diary, narrative, captions, references,
lists, acknowledgments—is printed twice: first in English (pp. 5-110),
then in Portuguese (pp. 111-230).
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Brazil Through the Eyes of William
James says precious little about philosophy, psychology, or religious studies.
Nevertheless, I strongly suspect that James enthusiasts will find it a
stimulating and intriguing read. Why? Here are four reasons. (1) To begin with, the editor's superb introduction ("An American Adam in the
Amazonian Garden of Eden") puts the Thayer Expedition into its historical and
cultural context (pp. 9-48). Among other things, Machado argues that the
Expedition "was not exactly an innocent voyage of exploration" (p. 38) inasmuch
as its agenda was shaped by sinister assumptions about race repugnant to James (pp.
38-39, 44-48). (2) The eighteen
letters which James wrote to his family—specifically, to his father, his
mother, and his siblings Henry and Alice—are minor masterpieces of the
epistolary genre (pp. 51-85). Immensely readable and revealing, these missives
range widely in tone: now fact-laden and full of reportage, now heartfelt and
affectionate; now wry and urbane, now deliciously silly and whimsical. They
will be savoured not only by aficionados of James's style, but also by anyone
interested in the climate of sentiment in which the James clan dwelt. (3) Then there are James's sharp-eyed
observations and splendidly vivid descriptions. Melancholy spider monkeys (pp. 99-100), marauding mosquitoes
(pp. 57, 74, 89, 91), "the vile Sea" (p. 53), the virtues of hammocks (p. 68),
the dangers of bananas (p. 56), pineapples "as big as a beaver hat" (p. 83),
"lovely Indian maidens" (p. 74), "this expensive and dirty Rio" (p. 63),
sublime Corcovado (p. 59), "the affluence of Nature" (p. 59), the enigmatic
Agassiz (pp. 56, 58, 59, 75, 76), the appearance and
manners of "polite and obliging" locals (pp. 54, 90, 92)—all these
things, and many more, are made concrete and real for the reader. Young James,
it is plain, was "a person on whom nothing is lost" (to quote his brother
Henry's well-known advice to aspiring writers). (4) Another virtue of the volume is its artful use of arresting images—photographs,
paintings, sketches, doodles, manuscripts—to complement James's written
accounts of his Brazilian sojourn. Especially noteworthy in this collection are
James's own drawings (pp. 13, 14, 25, 34, 52, 55, 67, 69, 70, 79, 82, 86, 89,
99), several of which are indisputable proof of artistic talent. His subjects
are varied: his fellow explorers, the women of Rio, the indigenous people of
the Amazon, Agassiz, monkeys, dug-out canoes, river-side scenery, and his
beloved sister Alice.
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By the time James left Brazil, he was weary of fieldwork—"I am thoroughly sick of collecting" (p. 84)—and had decided not to follow in Agassiz's
professional footsteps (pp. 80, 84, 85). He completed his degree at Harvard
Medical School, but grew disenchanted with medicine—just as he had with
natural history and (before that) with painting. With plenty of talent but no
vocation, James started to drift, rudderless, through life. To
comprehend the agonizing personal crisis he faced—a crisis which lasted
into the 1870s—we need to understand his mind from the inside; that is,
we need to understand how he saw the world. Brazil Through the Eyes
of William James helps us do just that. For this reason, among others,
Machado's many-sided volume is an excellent example of scholarship undertaken
in the service of the imagination. A rich and
provocative work, it deserves a wide audience—on
both sides of the equator. |
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